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Hello, you can call me Ender Wiggin. Despite my boyish novelistic name, I am indeed a female. I have been lurking this site for far too many years. Today, on a whim, I decided it was about time for me to join!

My love for the piano started at the age of 5, when I took my first piano lesson. I had a wonderful teacher! I quit about a year later but ever since then I have been self taught. This was the case up until the past 2 years where I've started taking very informal lessons. I still think I'm quite good despite my lack of professional lessonry.

I have an aversion to traditional lessons (duh) but I would like to try and start within the next year so I can improve my playing abilities.

Hey, everyone, I recently discovered this site after searching stuff on google, and I have to say, this place seems like an awesome place.

I started playing piano when I was 13, so it's almost been three years since then. My sister used to play when I was a kid, and I saw great pianists on YouTube, so seeing piano a lot back then eventually made me decide to do it myself.

I love playing, it's just that I don't really like my current teacher, and I'm trying to find new alternatives to make piano more fun.

Now I'm off to enjoy the rest of the forum

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I want to be good at what I do, but that doesn't mean I'll stop at just that

Hi...probably nobody will read this since there are already 13 pages. Anyway I pretty much know nothing and will definitely be asking a lot of questions. But I do know that I LOVE piano and I'm so excited that I found a place to talk about it!

Hi everyone, I'm Anna.I've recently come across this site, and signed up immediately after seeing all the passionate people sharing their love for music here. In my opinion this is an absolutely wonderful site!I'm on the border of turning 15 currently, but unfortunately I have not realized truly how beautiful an instrument the piano is until about a year ago. True, I've begun practicing out of my own agenda starting from somewhere around when I was 9, but back then I still saw the piano as just a piano. But this year, for the first time ever since I started playing when I was 7, I genuinely fell in LOVE with the piano. It's my deepest passion right now. I don't know how I would occupy my time outside of school if it weren't for piano! Of course, not just playing piano. I listen to classical music around the clock. It's just one of the best things I have ever found in life.The thing that frustrates (and motivates) me the most, though, is that I'm not as good as I want to be technically. I've just taken the RCM 10 exam, while I know others my age who've finished LRCM already! I'm always fuming at myself about how I should have focused more in my earlier years and maybe I would be farther today. But of course, we shouldn't dwell on the past. So now I commit a lot of my time to improving my technique. There are SO many gorgeous pieces that have been composed by the great masters, and I do not want to miss out on any of them!

Anyway, I'll stop ranting. haha

Anna

Edited by Satsuki (07/18/1008:06 PM)

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If everyone wanted to play first violin, then there would be no orchestras. Each musician should therefore appreciate his proper place.- Schumann

Really? I've never heard of him. How did you learn about him, and why is he your favorite? What are some good pieces by him to listen to?

He has a set of 15 etudes that are absolutely wonderful. I also enjoy his Spanish Dances. Someone once said "After Chopin, Moszkowski best understands how to write for the piano". It's a shame he isn't very well known today.

I don't remember exactly how i found out about him. Probably from surfing youtube videos, or listening to pandora.

Hi.... I think i'm supposed to post here first...So. My name's Therese... and I am currently a high school student... (My username is related to something my piano teacher told me about one of the pieces I'm studying...) I've been playing piano for 6 years. I've had 3 piano teachers. At first I was reluctant to start piano, because although I really loved music, I had a lot of other commitments at the time. But I couldn't help it as I watched my sister play beautiful music... we are both in grade 9 (RCM) right now.

I'm excited to be a part of these forums, and I really really enjoy playing the piano. It's become a very important part of my life-- I can't do without it!

My name is Hans (age 51) and I am living in The Netherlands. I started playing the piano at an age of 7 and initially got piano lessons for about 10 years. Then I switched to church organ and even studied that for two years at the conservatory of Amsterdam. However, during that time I have been grasped by musical theatre and suddenly switched my musical career into that field completely. Both my work as a church organist en my theatre activities required a lot site-reading capabilities. As a result of this I am definitely a very good site-reader, but a rather poor memorizer. Although good site-readers are often very "handy" in playing just the most relevant notes, it can also lead to sloppy performances when it comes to classical music. At least that's what happened to me. I regularly ran through all of the Beethoven Sonata's as if was reading a novel. But that was how I survived my fun piano career for about 25 years.

Two years ago I decided to buy a new grand, simply because my previous one just couldn't inspire me any longer. It got too old and the mechanics couldn't catch up with my fingers anymore (or was it maybe the other way around?). I decided to buy a Fazioli 228 (what the heck...), which completely changed my (piano) life! I started taking lessons again and found this very inspiring concert pianist who let me reinvent pieces that I previously just rushed through.

But to be honest, I felt that my technique has gotten rather poor and I wasn't able to let my fingers do what my head wanted them to do. So now I decided to spend some time on getting back to fundamental practicing in order to be able to play more precise and also faster.

I recently ran into a remarkable (online) book by Chuang C. Chang about piano methods. It's especially interesting because the author is not a piano teacher nor a professional musician. Instead he's a scientist, just like me (I'm a physicist myself) and he uses an interesting approach to evaluate existing practicing methods. The main message is that he suggests non-intuitive practice methods. It was actually this book that brought me here, since there have been some discussions on this forum about this book in the past.

I definitely hope to get inspired by this forum and I will of course try to contribute to some of the discussions in my typically Dutch manner. So beware

We've always had a piano at our home, but I was never really interested in playing music: I always felt like it was too much of a bother. About a year and a half ago (I'm 20), I decided I wanted to learn how to play Yann Tiersen's Comptine d'une autre été: l'après-midi, an absolutely beautiful song I listened to for days on end. I got a friend to learn me the basics and did some small stuff from Alfred's Beginners Book, but I really took off when I started learning classical music pieces on my own. I am too lazy to actually study piano the way I should, but I've been learning pieces on-and-off since then (mostly on) and I'm fairly pleased with my progress: I've been playing Comptine for about a year. Currently, my favourite pieces to play are Mussorgsky's Une Larme and Scriabin's Opus 16 Prelude 1, though my preferences shift a lot whenever I get obsessed with a new song.

I found the forum through wonderful wonderful Google and checked it out before. I decided to join because I'm looking for a low-end microphone that will let me record my playing in a satisfactory quality, and hoped to be able to get some advice here. I also like these kinds of forums, because I can listen to pieces I have never heard before and try to play them.

Like the above poster, I'm Dutch. I'm an economics student. I own (or rather, will own) a Mignon that is about a hundred years old and a family heirloom, which I greatly enjoy playing.

Hi everyone! I found these forums when I was Googling something piano related. I've been wanting to join for a while, it's interesting for me to hear from other pianists, get advice, inspiration.I've wanted to play piano since I was little but I started in elementary school. I've been playing for around 7 years... It's only been the past few years I admit that I really started to care about piano. I used to say "I love piano, but I HATE practicing."(I would practise about 1-2 hours a week on average... but refuse to quit piano.) Not anymore. I love piano. Period.Okay. It's time for me to get busy posting. (it is too late to practise now... don't want angry neighbours.)

New person delurking. I'm personally a very amateur pianist. I have a 9 year old that started at age 5, who is coming up on some difficult pieces. When I googled them, it led me to this board.

He most recently learned many of the Clementi Sonatina Op 36 mvts over the past year - most recently no 5 Presto he played in recital. He's learning Beethoven Sonata Op 49 No 2 right now. He studies Suzuki, but is an excellent sight reader for his age/experience level and lately has been doing more non-Suzuki repotoire. He has small hands and can't quite hit an octave yet.

I love reading about everyone's passion for piano! I've developed a great love and respect for piano playing.

Hello to you all.I joined a few days ago, having lurked for many months and found the amount advice avaiable here astonishing.Like many people I have wanted to play an intrument but just never tried. However, 18 months ago I retired and thought I would at least give it a try. The result to my amazement is I've managed to play from memory the 1st movement of the Moonlight Sonata. I know it's a simple piece for all you advanced players but it's a start. Now I have rest of life to play it properly and learn more pieces.The digital piano is going to be replaced with an acoustic very soon.I could ramble on but I'm not going to, at least not on this occasion.Thanking you all in advance for all your help in the future.Best wishes,Dave.

Like most people, I found this site through google about a month ago. I had planned to simply browse through the posts without actually making an account; however, when I finally convinced my parents to let me get rid of the awful piano I have now and get a new one, I decided to sign up to ask some of the piano veterans on here for advice.

Anyway, a little about my brief piano playing career (and by "a little" I of course mean "as much of my life story as will fit in this post"):I played the piano for the first time when I was six. Unfortunately, since my teacher taught straight from one of those generic books, I didn't enjoy any of the pieces, and I didn't practice at all, I grew bored with the instrument and quit after only one year.

Then, in January 2009, after not having touched the piano for almost 10 years, a combination of youtube and guitar hero (no joke) rekindled my interest and I decided to pick up where I had left off. I retaught myself how to sightread and play some of the easy stuff that I had once known (fur elise, simplified entertainer, etc.) but it wasn't enough for me. Inspired by martin leung's video of the mario themes and chocotiger's performance of the entertainer, I printed out the sheet music for the super mario brothers 3 second overworld theme and the original version of the entertainer and forced myself to learn them note by note. After about a month or so of off-and-on play, I managed a barely recognizable rendition of the first half of the former, and a sloppy performance of the first section (which is all I really cared about at the time) of the latter.

Finally, one of my friends, who had started taking lessons around the same time I did but actually stuck with it, gave me the name of his teacher, a concert pianist who he said really helped him improve. I put it off for a bit, but at the beginning of May, I started taking lessons from her -- and I'm so glad I did. We started with the super mario piece -- she hadn't even heard it before, but on a sightread, she corrected my pitiful fingering and showed me how to play the ridiculous latter half of the song. Within about 6 weeks, I managed to get it to recognizable standards -- and this was a piece which was at least 10 times harder than anything I had learned as a child.

I decided to try to test out my luck by making Maple Leaf Rag my next center project, with about 5 or 6 slightly easier pieces on the side. It took almost 3 months, but I managed to learn the composition in time to play in a recital. Since then, I've been learning anything and everything I've ever aspired to play -- from the super mario air platform theme, to rondo alla turca, to pirates of the caribbean, to clocks, to even stairway to heaven. I must say that restarting piano lessons was the single best decision I have made a very long time.

Right now I'm working on (but not necessarily improving on)revolutionaryflight of the bumblebee (rachmaninoff's)hungarian rhapsody no. 2 (ridiculously hard!)cohen's masterpiece (also ridiculously hard!)

Also, I currently play on a very small, very unfulfilling wurlitzer upright; but I am in the process of purchasing a new (hopefully better) piano

Hi there. I have been reading the posts at this excellent forum for some time now, and decided to introduce myself. A few years ago, I rediscovered the piano after a break of five years. I can't remember having played with so much fun and dedication when I was younger. It is really terrific. I am currently working on Liszt's Il sospiro, which is after Sonnet 104 from the Annees de Pelerinage, my biggest challenge until now. I am still playing at Yamaha Clavinova CLP 990 but seriously thinking of buying an acoustic or even a grand. Cheers!

I am a brand new member and welcome this opportunity to "jump right in." This is my first posting! I joined Piano World and Piano forum for 2 reasons. The first because I am a musician--pianist. I have studied piano all my life and will continue to do so. I no longer do any performing except with a 2 piano group--which I love. These past few years I devoted much of my time to producing a documentary film and a famous American woman pianist. You might say my hobby is Music History. I became interested in this particular woman because acknowledgement of her many contributions to the world of music in America have been forgotten---and overshadowed by her famous conductor husband--Leopold Stokowski. The name of my subject is: Olga Samaroff. However, her birth name is Lucy Hickenlooper--born in Texas in 1880. Samaroff, aka Hickenlooper became an international concert pianist against tremendous odds--old world biases against women as musicians and Americans as musicians!! Needless to say I would like the Piano Forum and Piano World people to look at my webpage to learn more about this exceptional American woman pianist. It's quite a story! www.olgasamaroff.com

Thanks for letting me indulge myself. I hope to post many notes about piano playing and music history.

Hi I am Jacob and have played the piano ever since I was in 3rd grade. It was a random interest and my mom decided to get me lessons.

I was never practiced as much as I was suppose to because I had more interest in creating music as compared to reading any music which has been my greatest fault and benefit at the same time.

Though it was only an FFA talent show a piece I put together in a week one first place in a regional competition. This was surprising because I had not played the piano seriously for about four years prior to the competition.

But now I have an electric Yamaha piano that was freely donated to me from some family members who no longer were interested in playing the piano and have been learning some things about audacity.

I am very excited to be on pianoworld to learn more about piano playing and music in general.

I'm a new member - heard about this in Perri Knize's book. I played piano as a child, and when I went off to college I stopped. 30 years later I was wandering through a music store and I sat down to play the digital pianos. The manager came over and asked me where I studied; when I said I didn't, he lectured me! I had just met my own inner voice, that voice that had been nagging me to start playing again. So I bought a Yamaha Clavinova and by sheer good luck I found the teacher of my dreams. I did well enough, played in some recitals, and practiced many many hours. I don't know when I started thinking about a grand piano, but I ended up searching for almost three years. I started out looking for a relatively inexpensive grand, and I played hundreds of them. Never could resist trying out some of the great pianos too, but never thought I could afford one. Then it happened to me - I played a truly great piano, a 1917 Steinway "O", and fell completely in love with it. Now I was REALLY miserable, but I really couldn't afford it and I knew it. Then my teacher offered to take me to his piano tech's studio to see if there was something I could handle. We looked at several pianos being rebuilt - a Steinway B, an A, and an O. The A and the B were too expensive even in their untouched state, and they both needed work. The "O" was so ugly I almost couldn't bear to play it - someone had actually painted it brown and the paint had bubbled and cracked. But my teacher played it for me, insisting that I give it a chance, and inside that horrible paint job was a gem. The price was almost right, but it did need some work. We started to negotiate, and every time I went back to visit I heard more wonderful things from the piano in its 'as-is' state. Turns out that this "O" is also a 1917 New York Steinway, the twin sister of the gorgeous one I had fallen in love with, but the neglected twin for sure! So I had her gussied up and am living happily ever after with her. The story has a nice postscript: unbeknownst to me, that first "O" was bought by one of my fellow students, and we are now duet partners. Our beloved teacher passed away last year and all his students are searching for someone to succeed him. I came to this forum looking for thoughts about finding a teacher who prefers to take older, lapsed students who are coming back to the piano. I don't have time to become a great pianist, but hope to be as good as I can and have lots of musical evenings at home.

Hey my name is Miles. I've been playing the piano for a bit more than a year... but according to my teacher I'm moving faster than most people do. Just got through Fur Elise and the Moonlight Sonata 1st Mvt (yeah I know... BOTH overplayed) and Im moving on into some Chopin Preludes. Im always looking for suggestions for things to play and Im excited to join the piano forums, Ive read a lot of topics from the piano forum while google searching and Im excited to be able to RESPOND now

Hello, all and sundry. My name is Greg Monks, and I am a semi-retired writer/musician. I also research period brasswinds. I studied to be a concert-pianist at one time, but allowed the skills to lag somewhat because I prefer composition to performance. I wrote a number of novels over the years, most of them under various pseudonyms. I play all brass instruments, as well as bass and some guitar. The instrument I play best is the clarinet, which is ironic because I have no love for the instrument.

Incidentally, what is a "lurker", besides someone hiding in the bushes, intending to do something indecent?

Hi everybodymy name is adam and ive been playing piano for about 8 years. im 15 and live in Los Angeles California. In California we have Certificate of Merit. I am CM level 10. Current pieces that im working on include Rachmaninoff etude-tableau op 39 no 6 (Little Red Riding Hood) and Liszt's Un Sospiro. I also play the drums but prefer piano. I LOVE romantic music the most but play everything. Looking forward to meeting some new people!

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"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music." - S. Rachmaninoff

My name's Sam, and I've just returned to piano playing. I took lessons all of my childhood, only ending when I went to uni in '04. But finally I've got myself a great keyboard (one of those proper ones which has a great sound to it), and I'm finding how quickly it all comes back to me,.

At the moment, I'm trying to work my way through a variety of pieces: some various pop and theatre songs for performance; and a variety of pieces including the Chopin preludes, Rhapsody in Blue (well I've got about 5 of 26 pages down to something acceptable!), and - my new favourite - Liebermann's "Gargoyles", which I only just bought today so we'll see how that one works out...

(Those are my long-term pursuits anyway; I'm just exploring various compilation books I have, and discovering how many pieces I vaguely remember)

Anyway, I'm so happy to find a place like this, and look forward to finding out a lot more about the pieces I like, and the world of piano playing... cheers!

I am excited to become a part of such an enourmously active website. I am astounded that some folks have more than 10000 posts! I guess that's an average of 3 posts per day if they joined in 2001. Still, that's a ton!

I took 6 weeks of lessons and then became a self teacher (this was back in middle school) and my high school band program really taught me enough theory (can you ever know enough, though?).

My favorite composer is probably hans zimmer or from a more classical standpoint, beethoven (mainly for moonlight sonata). I also enjoy Yann Tiersen quite a bit.

I am a newcomer to this forum. I am 62 and learnt the piano up to AMEB Grade 3 when a teenager - I think my wise teachers at the time didn't suggest that I try any further grades (*grin*). But I have kept my lovely Lipp upright always and persevered at the keyboard (including a detour into pipe organ when at uni for my residential college), and recently was lucky enough to acquire a new Boston GP178.

After 6 months of getting nowhere on the Boston I realized I should also acquire a teacher.

The teacher has proved to be a most excellent acquisition as he has cured me of the bad pianistic habits that I had carefully cultivated for decades, and now I am playing works that I never thought I could (some unkind friends still say I can't play them but I will get some new friends instead).

But seriously, I love the piano and its repertoire and get huge pleasure (as I think we all do) from playing my favourite works and occasionally entertaining friends at home. I toy with idea of doing a diploma sometime as I think I am almost to Associate level, but not having done years of Czerny/Hanon and the technical stuff I don't think I am quite there yet.

So much interesting stuff in these forums! It is going to take me months to scan the posts and get all the good advice that is in them.

I've been lurking here for a few months so I figured I might as well join.

I've been playing piano for four years now, but for half of this year I haven't had a teacher because I'm having a very long holiday. I've recently realised that I've been playing with tension in my hands, which are just starting to feel better after (two weeks later!) practising the chordal part of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G minor from (the famous bit at bar 17) way too much, so I've decided to learn Bach's inventions as practice to get rid of tension.